Kurdish EFL Learners’ Difficulties in Using Additive and Adversative Conjunctions as Cohesive Devices in their Academic Writings

Abstract

This study investigates the difficulties Kurdish EFL university learners encounter in using additive and adversative conjunctions as cohesive devices in academic writing. It aimed to identify the most common types of errors, explore their underlying causes, and propose pedagogical suggestions for improving learners’ writing performance. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Data were collected from forty fourth-stage students in the Department of English, College of Languages, Salahaddin University–Erbil, during the academic year 2024–2025. The research instruments consisted of two academic essay-writing tasks and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that learners experienced considerable difficulty using additive and adversative conjunctions appropriately, with additive conjunctions producing more errors (125) than adversative conjunctions (102). The most common error types included misuse, overuse, omission, redundancy, and inaccurate placement. The major causes were first-language interference, limited knowledge of conjunction functions, insufficient exposure to academic writing, lack of writing practice, and pure errors. The study recommends explicit instruction, focused writing practice, and systematic corrective feedback to improve learners’ cohesion, coherence, and overall academic writing proficiency.